At a Senate hearing, a prize-winning author pleads for tolerance so that she may return home to Rhode Island, while opponents cite the perils of homosexuality.

09:04 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 18, 2005

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Paula Vogel won a Pulitzer Prize seven years ago as a Rhode Island resident, but said no prize exceeds that of the "wooing and winning of the heart of my wife, Ann Fausto-Sterling," whom she married last year in Massachusetts.

But Vogel told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who were hearing testimony on bills for and against same-sex marriage, that she is now a writer-in-exile from Rhode Island, "because I do not want to live in a place where I do not have full civil rights, equal rights."

Vogel, who teaches creative writing at Brown University, and Fausto-Sterling, a Brown biology professor, were among dozens of people who testified for or against Senate Bill 0217, sponsored by Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, and Senate Bill 0846, sponsored by Sen. Leo Blais, R-Coventry.

Perry's bill would create equal access to civil marriage by broadening the category of eligible persons to include those of the same gender.

Blais' bill would forbid people of the same gender to marry one another, and would define marriage exclusively as the legal union between a man and a woman. It would also deny recognition of same-sex couples married in other states.

Testimony came from doctors, lawyers, parents, students, professors, and clergy on both sides of the issue. Many people -- including Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, who submitted written testimony in support of Perry's bill -- harked to Rhode Island's tradition of tolerance and religious freedom.

Vogel, who now lives in Truro, Mass., and works one day a week at Brown, spoke about the hatred she has endured as a lesbian.

"If you ask me, well, what use is the Pulitzer Prize, well it's no use at all in terms of being chased by men in a pickup truck in the back streets of Augusta, Ga., as a woman with short hair and Rhode Island license plates.

"I've known what it's like to be refused food in restaurants on the border of Nebraska. And I've known what it's like as a woman walking down by Trinity Conservatory to be bashed by a man on the street because I'm a [lesbian].

"But I always say to myself, what always helps is going home, home to my family. Home to where I am recognized as a full human being with all of the civil rights." That, said Vogel, "is no longer possible in Rhode Island."

Vogel said there can be no such thing as family values without community values, and as such she would open her door to anyone seeking help in the middle of the night. "What I would ask, and plead, is that you open the door for me, so that as a writer-in-exile, I may return home to Rhode Island."

The testimony grew emotional, and at times, contentious.

Journal photo / Connie Grosch

Kerri Heffernan, of Providence, sits with her children, William Barnett, 3, and Macey Barnett, 4, while her partner, Nancy Barnett, testifies in favor of a Senate bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

At one point, Sen. Harold Metts, D-Providence, interrupted to say, "I can't keep quiet any longer." Metts objected to testimony by one man who drew parallels between the civil-rights struggle for African-Americans to that of the struggle for marriage equality for gays and lesbians.

"You cite Dr. King [Martin Luther King Jr.], but there's one thing I'm confident of. He would not have performed a gay marriage," Metts said.

Ted Striklin, assistant pastor of the First Baptist Church of Warwick, said, "God has said marriage is to be between a man and a woman. I find it interesting -- it's a well-known fact that the homosexual lifestyle is not monogamous. In fact, they're known to have multiple partners."

Striklin said, "I believe that homosexuality is a sin against God. So I would not be in support of any sexuality outside of between a man and a woman."

Thomas Kaiser, of Portsmouth, called homosexuality "a dangerous, risky lifestyle," and said a vote for Perry's bill "would rock our community."

Jenn Steinfeld, cochair of Marriage Equality Rhode Island, a statewide coalition of citizens and more than 50 endorsing organizations, asked the senators to vote for Perry's bill "and be on the right side of history."

" . . . As I'm sure you know, today is the first anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts. Since that time, same-sex couples have chosen to marry -- just about one-sixth of all marriages performed in the state in that time. I think we can all agree, for all of the concerns about what would happen, nothing much is different. The sun still rises and sets, we still go to work in the morning, and home to our families at night. And those 6,000 families go to bed at night feeling just a little bit safer, a precious thing in this day and age."

A related bill will be heard today before the House Judiciary Committee in Room 313 at the start of the day's session.

Karen Lee Ziner can be reached at 277-7376 or kziner [at] projo.com

Digital Extra: With bills on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate submitted in Rhode Island, what's your stand on the issue?

http://projo.com/marriagesurvey